For the Grade
by Draco-Hermy
Summary: There's a new project in Muggle Studies class: demonstrate different ways of showing affection with your (teacher-chosen) partner. And when Draco and Hermione are paired together... Well... Things may not go smoothly. Rated T just in case.


**A/N For the Seven Fics challenge with the prompt of the genre 'Romance', and the Party Challenge with Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven.**

In Muggle Studies class, one could always expect to find many different types of people. Since it was required after the war, everyone, obviously, had to attend. And that "everyone" included, well, everyone.

From the average people, who just barely managed to give some semblance of attention to the professor, to the extremely bored people that just didn't care, to those that actually wanted a good grade and paid attention. Hermione Granger, for instance. She always had her hand in the air first, and was so quick about it that no one else even bothered to try and answer any questions.

Except for Draco Malfoy. He was determined to be the best in the class, to beat out the Mudblood. By definition, he was better than her at everything. So why couldn't he get a better grade? It defied all the laws of physics.

Or, you know, whatever those laws were.

In this particular class, there were only about ten different people, all seventh years returning to repeat their education. The head of the class was Professor Burr.

"All right," Professor Burr said, smiling. She was holding a piece of paper in her hand. "I'm assigning a new project." Everyone groaned except for Hermione, who looked up excitedly. For a reason Draco could never hope to understand, she loved doing work. She actually _enjoyed_ it.

"Oh, come on," Burr said, a little annoyed. "You don't even know what it is yet." She glared at a few people still looking angrily at her, one of them being Draco himself. "What you have to do is show different ways that people show affection for one another. Yes, yes, that means the pairs will have to be between different genders. And before you go and choose your partners, think again. I'm choosing. In fact, I've already chosen."

"Are you really going to force us to be with people we don't want to?" Theodore Knott asked.

"Who said I put you with people you didn't want to be with? I sorted you by your intelligence levels," Burr said. Knott rolled his eyes. "Okay, here are the groups: Theodore Knott and Hannah Abbott, Ronald Weasley and Parvati Patil, Neville Longbottom and Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Padma Patil."

"What?" came from every single mouth in the entire room. Ron and Harry actually didn't look that upset, which Draco could understand. The identical Patil twins were quite attractive, except for the Gryffindor one, and they didn't have terrible personalities. But Hermione Granger?

Draco was a little smug about being on the same intelligence level as her, but he quickly banished the thought. That was the _expectation._ He should have been ashamed at being as dumb as a Mudblood. He couldn't deny that Hermione was smart, but she couldn't be _that_ intelligent... right?

At the end of class, Professor Burr handed out their official assignment requirements. They had to figure out some way of showing three different types of affection: familial, friendly, and romantic. It could be a live performance, or a recorded one with the help of a Muggle device called a "video camera", or a poster with pictures as proof of their accomplishments.

Professor Burr said that the most points would be awarded to those who used the video camera, since it was a Muggle object, and the least points awarded to those who did the poster, since it was just a little lazy. Oh, and it was due the next day.

Of course, immediately after class ended, Hermione rushed over to Draco.

"We _have_ to do the video, Malfoy," she said. "I am getting the best grade possible for this thing. Let's meet at the end of dinner tonight and we can work out how we're going to do this. Goodbye." She said it all so fast, and left as soon as she was done, Draco didn't even time to respond. He was a little put off that she thought he'd take the easy way out. Of course he wanted the best grade he could get. His father would go into a rage if he didn't.

Meeting after dinner didn't seem so bad. No one was allowed to make fun of him for hanging around the Mudblood since it was for a school project, and it wouldn't exactly be in front of everyone.

As Draco gathered his books and walked to his next period, which was the last one of the day, he thought that maybe he could finally prove that Know-It-All Granger wasn't as smart as everyone believed.

At dinner, it was all Draco could do to not look over at Hermione. He was quite excited to see the caliber of her cleverness. She just couldn't be smarter than him. It wouldn't be right.

As soon as dinner was over, everyone cleared out. No one wanted to be stuck at the back of the line to get into the common room. Sometimes that could take forever. But Draco figured he'd be with Hermione at least long enough for the line to dissipate.

When Hermione finally seemed to figure out that Draco wasn't going to get up to talk to her, she got up and went over to him. It was all Draco could do not to wince when she sat down next to him. A Mudblood Gryffindor sitting at the Slytherin table? Really?

"Don't worry," she said, "I got the video camera from Professor Burr on my way here." Draco hadn't even thought about that, but he supposed that maybe that was a good idea.

"Good," he said. They sat in silence for a moment when he didn't say anything more. But what was he supposed to say?

"Which relationship should we show first?" Hermione asked.

"Er..." Draco studied the page. "Family. Then we're allowed to fight."

"What?"

"Look!" He pointed at the page, which read: _There are many different kinds of familial affection. Some include, but are not limited to, fighting all the time, hugging, making fun of each other, etc._

"Okay, fine," Hermione said. "Familial affection." She did something to the camera, which Draco assumed was to turn it on. She pointed it at herself and flipped the little screen over so she could see what she was doing. "Press play, would you, Malfoy?"

It took him a whole minute to find the little green button with an arrow on it. He was thankful he knew what the play button looked like, actually thankful to the stupid Muggle Studies class that had taught him that. He pressed play.

"This is Hermione Granger-"

"And Draco Malfoy," Draco added off-screen.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Granger said, and continued. "We're going to show how families show affection to one another. In this case, let's assume Malfoy and I are cousins. Press the stop button, Malfoy." He glared at her and did so. Being her little servant wasn't that fun, and she was shaping up to be just as clever and annoying as she was in class, which didn't improve his mood.

"Cousins?" Draco asked.

"I'm pretty sure you would have freaked out if we pretended to be siblings."

He was mildly impressed, though he quickly shoved that thought to the loo. They'd never get anything done if they were fighting all the time, so best to just forfeit a battle once in a while.

"Right. So how are we going to show 'familial affection'?" he asked.

"Well, since we're in the Great Hall already, let's just pretend we're at my house for Christmas dinner," she said.

"Why can't it be my house?"

She sighed. "It doesn't matter whose house it is, Malfoy."

"Then why can't it be mine?"

"You are such a brat," she said.

"And you are really annoying," he responded. She rolled her eyes.

"We aren't getting anywhere. How about we just say it's some other cousin's house and we're just eating there. Okay? Okay. Go over to the other side of the table so it's possible for us to talk."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just put the camera in front of us while we're sitting next to each other? And then neither of us would have to walk around the table?" Draco asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Fine. Yes." Hermione put the camera in front of them. This was going to be a long night.

**A/N Should I describe all three? I'm obviously going to describe romantic. But do you guys want me to describe family and friendship as well? I'm leaning on describing them, but you can decide. R&R please! :)**


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